Weeded III
"Yugi!" Joey hissed nervously. "Yugi, the gardeners put something on my bush! Help! Help me! Help!" When he got no reply immediately, he roared, "YUGI, HELP ME THIS INSTANT!"
The iris fairy appeared a few moments later, frowning in concern. "What is it, Joey?"
"They put
things on me!" the blond exclaimed frantically, pointing to the yellow and white things that almost looked like a type of flower he'd seen before except that they were hot and they blinked like fireflies. "Help! What do I do? Why would they do this t' me? How 'm I s'posed t'—STOP LAUGHING!" he snapped, blushing a little as the smaller fairy literally fluttered until he fell to the ground from laughing so hard. "This is serious!"
"Joey, they're just blinkies to make us pretty for when the Kaibas have their big party," Yugi assured, smiling. "Don't worry."
"Oh. …Party?" Joey frowned thoughtfully. "I didn't know they had parties. Are we invited?"
"I think that it's humans only."
"Oh." The blond tugged thoughtfully at the thick sweater the Kaiba brothers had gotten him to protect him from the cooler weather, since his other clothes had been… compromised by the weed fairies before he'd been rescued. "…It's the season where humans give each other things to show how much they care about each other, right?"
Yugi shrugged. "I guess so."
"…Seto and Mokuba have done a lot for me… I wanna do somethin' for them, too…" Joey sighed. "What could I do, though? All I can do is make clothes out of leaves, and I don't think they'd really appreciate that."
The smaller fairy tilted his head. "Don't you weave spider silk too, though? I saw that really beautiful scarf you were wearing the other day and it looked really good on you. You made that, right?"
The blond brightened up at the thought. "Yeah, I can! I'll make a scarf for them!" He rushed toward his bush to snatch his scarf from the twig he'd been hanging it on and fluttered back out to smile at his smaller friend. "I'll just go measure his neck t' see how long I hafta make it!"
"I'll come with you. They said to come up any time we like," Yugi decided, flying up beside him as the rose fairy began flying toward the mansion. "Maybe we can have tea or something."
Joey glanced back at him and raised an eyebrow. "Have you figured out what tea or coffee are yet?"
The smaller fairy pursed his lips. "No, but I'm beginning to think they're yanking our wings and are really drinking muddy water."
.-.-.-.-.-.
Seto looked up from his laptop as he heard a soft tapping sound, then turned in his chair, unable to help a smile when he saw the blond fairy frantically banging on his window. He chuckled as he stood and walked over to open it, allowing the exuberant fairy and his friend inside. "Well, I wasn't expecting you, but you're a pleasant surprise."
"I wanna make somethin' for ya," Joey stated bluntly and without preamble.
The human paused awkwardly. "…I appreciate the sentiment, Joey, but if you'll recall the last time—"
"Okay, so the nectar-butter was a bad idea," the blond admitted, shrugging. "But I can't go wrong with this!"
Seto stared.
Yugi smiled brightly. "He just wants to weave a scarf for you, Seto. It's not as bad as you're making it out to be."
"Yeah, just like this one!" Joey held up his own scarf, then fluttered his wings so he was level with the brunet's chest. "I just wanted t' come and measure ya before I started, so I didn't make the scarf too short!"
Seto coughed quietly as he finally saw the little piece of fabric in the blond's hands. "Right. Okay then."
The rose fairy, seeing he had the go-ahead, fluttered closer and placed the scarf at the middle of his collarbone. Then, he carefully stretched the other end as far as it could go.
It only covered a tiny fraction of what would need to be done.
The blond's mouth firmed into a straight line. "I may have miscalculated how well this was gonna go."
Seto smiled awkwardly. "You don't have to make me anything, Joey. Just knowing that you actually
wanted to is nice. It's the sentiment that counts—"
Joey scowled at him. "NO! I WILL MAKE IT AND IT WILL BE A MASTERPIECE!"
The brunet could only stare.
Yugi looked between them for a few moments before smiling. "You could always make your scarf for him into a ring. Doesn't it look like it would fit perfectly around his finger?"
Seto yelped as the blond immediately dove for his hand, just barely catching himself from yanking away from him. "Are you
trying to kill yourself, Joey?"
"Shut up. I'm dainty as a cricket."
The human wasn't quite sure what that meant, but he supposed it made perfect sense to fairies.
Joey carefully measured the distance around the brunet's ring finger, then frowned; it left too much excess scarf. He tried the brunet's middle finger, then squealed in delight and zoomed upward to point directly in his face. "YES. It will be placed on your finger and it shall be GLORIOUS."
"…Right…"
"We should probably get going if we want to get enough silk for you to weave it," Yugi suggested, smiling.
Joey nodded and tucked his scarf around his neck, then waved at Seto cheerfully. "We'll be back in a few hours so you can let us back out, okay?"
"Okay. Wait, where are you going?" Seto exclaimed, half-exasperated and half-afraid that someone would see the fairies and capture them and sell them to scientists or a circus or something else equally ridiculous.
"…Gonna go find yer spiders," the blond answered, looking baffled.
Yugi cleared his throat. "We'll be sticking pretty close to the ceiling, if that's what you're worried about."
"Oh. I guess that's okay then," the human muttered, and the two fairies took that as a 'yes' and flew off. Seto continued pondering for a few moments before he roared, "WHY ARE YOU LOOKING FOR MY SPIDERS AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEAR MY CEILINGS!" He paused, then roared again. "I DON'T OWN ANY SPIDERS!"
His brother's voice came from down the hall. "Seto? Are you okay?"
Seto growled to himself for a moment before slapping a hand over his face. "
Fairies."
.-.-.-.-.-.
"How much do you think is enough?" Yugi asked, holding up the large ball of spider silk they'd rolled up (with the spiders' permissions, of course). "I've never made a scarf, so how do you know when you have enough?"
"I guess!" Joey replied cheerfully. "I always get more than I need and the extra stuff I hang up on my bush so that the dew catches on it and makes it look pretty! …Much prettier than those blinkies."
"Oh." The smaller fairy looked at the silk for a few moments, then blushed lightly. "Do you think you could show
me how to weave spider silk?"
The blond looked down at him in confusion. "Why would ya wanna know? Ya already have your pretty leaves that ya can weave together…"
Yugi's blush darkened. "Well, I know I can, and sometimes Seto and Mokuba will give me some clothes, too, but I don't want to weave something for me. I… I want to make it for a friend of mine. –Not you, a girl."
Joey stared at him for a minute or two before shrugging. "We're gonna need a lot more silk, then. A
lot more. …You're gonna screw up the first five or six times…" When the younger boy looked offended, he sighed. "It's not that I don't have faith in ya, Yug'. You're gonna ruin the first few because ya won't get the sticky part of the web twisted inside, and then the second few you're gonna screw up the way it's woven. I'm not sayin' it t' be mean. I'm sayin' it 'cause it's true."
The iris fairy sighed. "You're probably right."
"'course I'm right, Yug'. This scarf is the result of countless other failures."
.-.-.-.-.-.
Yugi was both perplexed and frustrated. He was usually very good at puzzles, but there was just something about spider silk that made his brain short-circuit and die. He looked over at the neat rows of the blond's scarf and sighed. "I'm no good at this."
"Ya didn't get all of the ick off, Yug'," Joey replied, fingers twisting the silken thread swiftly. "Sometimes spiders put extra ick on. Here, lemme just…" He grabbed the smaller boy's silken mess and turned, slicing the unusable fabric off with one of his thorns before turning and carefully holding the thread back out to him. "Here. Ya pull the extra gunk off like this. Just start a pile of it and we'll have fun with it later."
The smaller fairy blinked. "What do you use it for?"
The blond smiled brightly. "I throw it at weeds."
Yugi gaped at him for a moment, startled, then couldn't help an amused giggle. "You would, Joey."
"'course I would. Weeds are jerks." Turning back to his own weaving, Joey frowned a little. "This needs somethin'. It looks too plain… I could put a rock on it. Humans put rocks on their rings all the time, right?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess. …Why do they put rocks on their rings? Couldn't they choose something prettier?"
"Maybe because the rocks don't die and fall off like flowers do. Hmm… I'll go look for a rock t' use after I finish this." The blond stroked the growing scarf/ring and smiled. "I hope Seto likes it."
"How long does it usually take to make one of these completely?" Yugi asked, tilting his head.
Joey pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Well. I guess it takes me two or three days tops, dependin' on how bored I am. …It's gonna take at least a week for you, though, buddy. You're just beginnin'."
Yugi groaned.
.-.-.-.-.-.
Joey examined the rock in his hands carefully, lips pursed with concentration. "…I think this one will work."
It was a very pretty rock, he supposed, though he didn't understand why humans found them so fascinating. This one was a smooth, blue-gray oval. He couldn't tell if the rock had originally been blue or if the water had somehow made it that way, but he decided that it was really the best rock he had found and his scarf had been finished for days. He'd just needed a stone to put on it.
Well, even if Seto didn't like it, at least he could tell the brunet about his harrowing tale, dodging large orange and white foes that kept trying to leap up and attack him from the water. He had fought valiantly against them and had emerged the victor, retreating with this single smooth stone as his prize to put on his friend's ring.
He really was proud of himself. Those water-beasties had been quite frightening.
Fluttering back to his bush, he settled on the twigs he'd left the scarf on and carefully threaded his thorn-needle with some spare spider-silk. Pressing the stone to the center of the scarf, he expertly pushed the thorn through and plucked it out the other side, delicately crossing it over the stone and through the silken fabric on the other side. He continued to cross the sturdy thread over the stone until the strong material covered it like thin, shimmery gauze. It almost made the stone prettier.
The ring was finished!
Joey smiled and hugged the ring tightly. "This is great! I hope he likes it!"
.-.-.-.-.-.
Seto lifted his head as he heard tapping at his window, grumbling as he reached out to fumble with his alarm clock. When he saw that it was two-thirty in the morning, he hoped someone was dying or that the mansion was on fire. He turned and hid his head under the pillow for a moment, but when the tapping became more insistent, he sighed loudly in frustration and finally got out of bed, stepping into his slippers as he shuffled over to the window.
He felt his ire begin to fade when he saw Joey hopping up and down in glee at seeing him. He'd learned that floral fairies were most active when it was somewhat cool and moist, and nearly comatose when it was hot and dry. He knew it wasn't necessarily helpful to water plants during the hottest part of the day, but when he'd seen how much more active Joey and Yugi had been and how grateful they'd been to enjoy the sunny weather rather than sleep through it, he hadn't really minded wasting the water. Unfortunately, the fairies would be going to sleep soon; it was getting too cold for them recently and they'd probably hibernate until early spring.
He'd spend as much time with the fairies until they fell asleep as they could.
Opening the window, he smiled tiredly. "Joey, what did I tell you about human sleep cycles?"
"Oh. Is it too late?" Joey turned and stared up at the moon. "I get confused when I'm goin' by the moon. It's easier t' go by the sun." He looked up at the brunet and frowned. "I'm sorry. I woke ya up at a bad time, huh?"
Seto felt his heart twist at the pathetic expression on the blond's face. "No, it's fine. What's got you so excited?"
The fairy immediately brightened up as he held up the scarf-ring. "I finished!"
"Oh. –Oh! Uh, thanks. It's beautiful." Seto leaned down to examine it and raised an eyebrow. "…This… this stone…"
"I got it out of the water with the big orange-and-white water beasties!"
The brunet smiled awkwardly. He had no idea how to explain that the water beasties were koi fish. "I see. That must have taken some courage." He held his hand out and allowed the blond to tie the soft but surprisingly strong fabric around his middle finger, then lifted it so he could examine it. "It's beautiful," he admitted in surprise. "How'd you make the rock shine like this?"
"I just put one layer of spider-silk over it so ya could still see it." Joey rocked back on his heels, clasping his hands behind his back as he smiled with glee. "I'm glad ya like it, Seto!"
"Yeah, blue and white like my favorite Duel Monster." Seto's lips quirked up into a genuine smile. "Thank you, Joey. –But I don't have anything special for you."
The blond hummed thoughtfully. "Weeeeell, there's always somethin' I've wanted t' do. Wouldja mind? I… I
think it's special for humans…"
"Uh, okay." The human raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
Joey played with the hem of his shirt for a moment before blurting out, "I wanna kiss your cheek."
Seto blinked in surprise. "You… you want to kiss my cheek?"
"As somethin' special in return. I saw your parents and you and your brother doin' it all the time when you were kids. Would it be okay if I kissed your cheek?" the fairy asked nervously.
The brunet shrugged slowly. "I guess you can, if you like." He held his hand out for the fairy to step onto and carefully lifted him up to his face. He saw the blond lean forward and couldn't help a smile as he felt a soft brush like the smallest of feathers against his skin.
Joey squealed with glee and flew up from the human's hand, hugging himself as he did a few loops. He twirled around a few times as he heard the brunet chuckle, then fluttered to land on the window sill and turned to look up at him with a bright smile. "That was nice. I see why humans do it all the time. Ya wanna give me one?" he asked happily.
Seto snorted and leaned against the sill attached to the wall, smiling at the fairy in amusement. "Joey, I'd knock you over."
"I suppose ya would," the blond admitted to himself thoughtfully, then shrugged, happy that he'd been able to show affection to his friend. He flew up to place his hands on the human's nose and giggled when his eyes crossed to look at him. "I'm glad ya like it, Seto. Wear it every day I'm asleep, okay! That way you'll see it and think of me even when I'm hibernatin'!"
"I will," the human promised, smiling. "Thank you for the ring, Joey."
"Thanks. Yug' and I'll come up for one last tea before we hibernate." Joey stroked the brunet's nose affectionately, then turned and fluttered out the window, back to the garden below.
Seto rubbed where the fairy had touched him idly, unable to wipe the smile off his face, then turned and trudged back to his bed. For some reason, he didn't feel so angry about being woken as he had before.
.-.-.-.-.-.
"Oh, is this the ring Joey made for you? That's cool!" Mokuba exclaimed, smiling, as he grabbed his brother's hand to better look at the silk ring. He paused, then frowned. "…Is this one of the pieces of gravel from the koi pond?"
Seto glanced away from him and hummed. "Yes, but the story behind it includes an epic battle between Joey and water beasties."
The younger boy stared at him for a moment before sputtering, "What?"
"Ask Joey for the story when he and Yugi come up for tea before they hibernate," Seto replied flippantly, pulling his hand back. "Pass the sugar, Mokuba."
"…Seto, you confuse the hell out of me."
"Stop cursing, Mokuba. And pass the sugar."
